Abstract

This paper provides historical perspective on recent debates about professional ethics and computer security by discussing the relationship between conceptions of professional responsibility and framings of computer security. It begins by describing Willis Ware's changing conception of the relationship between computer security and privacy. It then describes three different ways that computer security was framed between the late 1960s and early 1980s: as a tool for protecting the privacy of individual citizens and consumers from the intrusions of large bureaucratic organizations; as a means of protecting corporations from computer-related crime; and as a means of protecting U.S. national security from foreign adversaries. In each case, the framing of computer security intertwined with distinctive conceptions of professional responsibility, and motivated different kinds of collective action.